iso27diy-corp/metadata/Obsidian Front Matter Syntax.md

Obsidian Front Matter Syntax

Obsidian’s front matter follows YAML syntax, with a few important caveats.

What works (standard YAML)

Obsidian uses YAML front matter at the top of a note, delimited by ---. Most standard YAML features work as expected, see this short example:

---

title: My Note

tags:

  - obsidian

  - yaml

published: true

rating: 4.5

created: 2026-04-21

---

Obsidian calls these metadata variables 'Properties'. These include:

• Key–value pairs
• Lists (arrays)
• Booleans, numbers, strings, dates
• Nested objects

Obsidian-specific limitations & quirks

Although it’s YAML, Obsidian does not support the full YAML spec equally everywhere:

1. Tabs are not allowed
   YAML requires spaces for indentation. Tabs can break parsing.

2. Advanced YAML features may not be recognized These may technically be valid YAML but are not reliably usable in Obsidian:

   • Anchors (& / *)
   • Complex inline objects
   • Multi-document YAML

3. Everything is treated as metadata, not logic Obsidian doesn’t “execute” YAML — it just reads values for:

   • Properties panel
   • Search
   • Filters
   • Plugins (e.g., Dataview)

4. Some plugins impose their own expectations For example:

   • tags should usually be a list of strings
   • Dates may need to be ISO-like (YYYY-MM-DD) for queries to work

5. Inline formatting is treated as plain text Links or markdown inside front matter are just strings:

   author: "[[Richard Kranendonk]]" ``

✅ Best practice

Think of Obsidian front matter as:

“Well-behaved, simple YAML meant for metadata, not configuration logic.”

Stick to:

• Scalars (strings, numbers, booleans)
• Lists
• Simple nesting
• Spaces (not tabs)